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Flashback (episode)
:You may be looking for the literary technique of flashbacks instead. When Tuvok begins to suffer from a mental breakdown, triggered by a suppressed memory, a mind-meld with Janeway takes him back to his tour of duty with Captain Sulu aboard the USS Excelsior. Summary Teaser Aboard Voyager, Neelix is trying to get Tuvok to sample a new juice blend of his that is made from citrus peel, orange juice and papaya seed extract. Tuvok notes that Neelix's "culinary experiments" have had a very low success rate, but is assured that Ensign Golwat enjoyed it, and even asked for a second glass. He gingerly samples the drink and only notes that it is "impressive". While cooking Tuvok's breakfast, Neelix's Porakan eggs are ruined by a plasma surge from Engineering that manifests itself in his stove. The surge is due to modifications to the plasma conduits being made in order to accomodate a new energy source. Neelix and Tuvok are summoned to the bridge. *''Captain's log, stardate 50126.4. We have detected a gaseous anomaly that contains sirillium, a highly combustible and versatile energy source. We've altered course to investigate. '' As Voyager approaches the nebula containing the sirillium, Captain Janeway asks Tuvok to modify the deflector shields to compensate for plasmatic turbulence within the nebula. Tuvok is suddenly stricken with dizziness and disorientation, and relieves himself to go to sick bay. En route, he has a flashback of himself as a child holding the hand of a girl hanging from a cliff. He is not able to hold on, and the girl plummets to her death. Tuvok stumbles into sick bay, where Kes is on duty. He collapses on the floor. Act One Tuvok, now conscious, relates his vision of the girl hanging from the cliff. Though the episode seemed real, he does not recall it having happened. The Doctor's diagnosis suggests a hallucination or repressed memory of some sort. The Doctor gives Tuvok a neurocortical monitor to record his brain patterns and alert sick bay in case the symptoms recur. In Engineering, Harry explains that his sensor sweeps haven't turned up anything that would affect Tuvok or Voyager. Tuvok suggests to B'Elanna that, due to being close to Klingon space, Voyager conduct a tachyon sweep of the nebula to reveal any cloaked ships that could be responsible for the symptoms. But, of course, Voyager is in the Delta Quadrant. As he stares at the sensor display of the nebula, Tuvok experiences another flashback, and once again lets go of the girl hanging from the cliff. In sick bay, The Doctor suggests that a mind meld between the patient and a family member to bring Tuvok's repressed memory to the conscious mind may fix the problem. Being the closest thing Tuvok has to family on Voyager, Captain Janeway agrees to a mind meld with Tuvok. However, instead of accessing the memory of the girl and the cliff, Janeway and Tuvok find themselves on the USS Excelsior in 2293 as Captain Hikaru Sulu initiates a rescue mission (in violation of Starfleet Command's orders) for James Kirk and Leonard McCoy, who have been accused of murdering the Klingon chancellor and are standing trial on Qo'noS. En route, the Excelsior approaches a nebula similar to the one observed on Voyager; as Tuvok turns to look, he flashes back yet again to the girl hanging from the cliff, and the mind meld is interrupted. Act Two Tuvok lies unconscious in sick bay. The Doctor warns that if the repressed memory keeps resurfacing, he could experience brain death from synaptic pathway degradation. Some research on the nebula that the Excelsior encountered 80 years ago shows that they are quite different, but they are similar when viewed by the naked eye. Harry suggests that the visual stimulus of Voyager's nebula triggered Tuvok's memory of the Excelsior. The Doctor revives Tuvok, who completes the story of the interrupted mind meld. The Excelsior was ambushed by Klingons and forced to abort the rescue mission, but this still has no connection to the repressed memory. Tuvok attempts another mind meld with Janeway, but once again they find themselves on the Excelsior. In crew quarters, just before the Klingon attack, Tuvok reveals to Janeway that his conflict with human behavior (his issues with Sulu disobeying orders) was why he resigned from Starfleet following this mission. Back on Vulcan, he took T'Pel as a mate and began raising children, whereupon he understood his parents' decision to send him to Starfleet Academy, and that he should not have resigned. Tuvok once again joined Starfleet in order to expand his knowledge of the galaxy, and to learn from humans. Act Three Back on the bridge of the Excelsior, Sulu lies to Kang, the captain of the Bird-of-Prey, about his rescue mission, claiming they got lost inside the nebula due to a navigational system malfunction. Kang insists on escorting the Excelsior back to Federation space, so Sulu plays along while looking for a way to lose the Bird-of-Prey. Ensign Tuvok suggests that the trace amounts of sirillium in the nebula can be ignited with a positron beam to distract the Klingons for several seconds while they make their escape. As they clear the nebula, the "match is ignited" and the Excelsior quickly resumes its course to the Klingon homeworld. However, three more Birds-of-Prey approach the Excelsior and begin firing torpedos at it. Tuvok's bunkmate Valtane is killed by a plasma conduit rupture in his console, despite Tuvok's advance warning that the console would explode. This causes the repressed memory to resurface again. In Voyager's sick bay, Tuvok's memory engrams are destabilizing and The Doctor attempts to terminate the mind meld, but is unable to. Tuvok's brain damage is accelerating and he will be braindead within 20 minutes if the mind meld continues. Due to this destabilization, Janeway becomes "visible" to Captain Sulu on the Excelsior. Act Four Tuvok offers to break the mind meld, warning Janeway that if his brain is fatally damaged that she will encounter brain damage as well. Janeway decides to press on, since they have been making good progress. They return to the time before the battle and Tuvok subdues Commander Janice Rand, using her uniform to make Janeway seem inconspicuous amongst the crew of the Excelsior. Meanwhile, The Doctor fits a cortical stimulator on Tuvok to bring him out of the meld with bursts of thoron radiation. This exposes a virus masquerading as one of Tuvok's memory engrams, and The Doctor increases the amount of radiation to kill the virus. The scene on the bridge where Valtane dies is reenacted, now with Janeway in uniform, and the flashback recurs. Janeway asks Tuvok to concentrate, to bring them to the precipice with the girl. Meanwhile, the virus in Tuvok's brain migrates to the Captain's, and accordingly, Janeway experiences her version of Tuvok's flashback, seeing herself as a child in Tuvok's place. The Doctor fits a stimulator on Janeway and irradiates her brain, causing the virus to move again, and now Tuvok's flashback recurs. As the virus begins to die, The Doctor once again increases the amount of radiation to 80 kilodynes. The flashback recurs now with a young Valtane hanging on to the girl, and then again and again with other children — presumably the other hosts the virus has claimed in its lifetime. It turns out that the virus feeds on neural peptides and bypasses the immune system of its host by disguising itself as a memory engram — the false memory of the girl falling from the cliff, so traumatic that the mind would repress it, thus ensuring that it would not be detected living in the brain of the host. Tuvok concludes that Valtane, as he lay dying, infected him with the virus, the same way the virus infected the Captain as Tuvok's mind began to degrade. Memorable Quotes "Mr. Neelix, I would prefer not to hear the life history of my breakfast." : - Tuvok "You never brought ''me tea." : - '''Janeway' "Let the regulations be damned!" : - Hikaru Sulu "That is a most illogical line of reasoning." "You better believe it!" : - Tuvok and Sulu "Whew... Vulcans! You guys need to relax." : - Valtane "Mr. Tuvok, if you're gonna remain on my ship, you're gonna have to learn how to appreciate a joke. And don't tell me Vulcans don't have a sense of humour, because I know better." : - Sulu Background Information * "Flashback" was Voyager's tribute to the Original Series and Star Trek's 30th anniversary, recreating many scenes from the feature film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. * As of this episode, Michael Ansara (Kang) has played the same character on three different live-action Star Trek series. The only other actors to do so are Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T. Riker), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Armin Shimerman (Quark), John de Lancie (Q) and Richard Poe (Gul Evek). * George Takei was the only TOS actor to not appear in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's 30th anniversary tribute episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". Grace Lee Whitney, a recurring character on TOS, also did not appear as she had left the series by the time "The Trouble with Tribbles" (during which the DS9 episode is set) was produced. * Michael Ansara previously played Kang in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Day of the Dove" and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Blood Oath". He also played Jeyal in the DS9 episode, "The Muse" Continuity * Dmitri Valtane apparently died on the bridge of the [[USS Excelsior|USS Excelsior]] in this episode following an attack from the Klingons. However, if you watch closely at the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, when all the Excelsior crew are on the viewscreen of the ''Enterprise''-A, Valtane appears to be alive and well. Some fan theories propose the idea that Valtane had a twin of some sort serving on the ship as well (and that it is the twin we see at the end of Star Trek VI). While there is no way to establish this, there is a short arrangement of quick edits at the beginning of Star Trek VI that shows Valtane at two different places on the bridge at the same time. * At the end of the episode, Captain Janeway asks Tuvok if the Excelsior ever managed to rescue Kirk and McCoy. This was probably done to emphasize the episode's tribute to the original series, but it makes it appear that Janeway didn't pay much attention during her history classes. Since the actions of the Excelsior took place shortly before the Khitomer Conference, which marked the beginnings of the peace process between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, they would presumably be required learning for all Federation children in school, though obviously much of it would not be recorded in the history books. * When Janeway and Tuvok are on the bridge of the Excelsior for the first time and he tells to her the events of those times, he says Kirk and McCoy were arrested two days after the destruction of Praxis, but in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, during the briefing of the officials of Starfleet, Spock says explicitly that two months have passed since the incident. It is possible that this discontinuity is a result of Tuvok's memories of this period being damaged by his illness. * At the end of the episode, when we see Voyager leaving the class-17 nebula, it is not clear if Voyager has gathered any of the sirrilium gas in the nebula. * Janice Rand appears in this episode as holding the rank of a Lieutenant Commander. However, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Rand clearly holds the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. It is possible that this discontinuity is a result of Tuvok's memories of this period being damaged by his illness. * In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the Excelsior's navigator wore the grey undershirt and uniform trim of the TOS movie-era Operations department. In Flashback, the character (played by a different actor) wears the white color of the Command division. * Another small oddity is that we see exterior shots of the Excelsior multiple times during the episode. Obviously, this is a case of dramatic license, but it's strange since all the 2293 scenes take place within Tuvok's memory. Links and References Guest Stars *George Takei as Hikaru Sulu *Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand *Michael Ansara as Kang *Jeremy Roberts as Dmitri Valtane *Boris Lee Krutonog as Lojur Co-Stars *Louis Ortiz as ''Excelsior'' alien crewman (uncredited) *Tarik Ergin as Ayala (uncredited) References Azure Nebula, Bolian, class 17 nebula, class 11 nebula, cortical stimulator,cordrazine, crew quarters, ''Enterprise''-A, USS, ''Excelsior'', USS, ''Excelsior''-class, Golwat, Keethara, Khitomer, Kirk, James T., Klingon battle cruiser, Kolinahr, ''K't'inga''-class, McCoy, Leonard H., memory virus, neurocortical monitor, Pon farr, Porakan eggs, Porakas IV, Praxis, pyllora, rengazo, repressed memory, sirillium, Spock, subspace shockwave, Talax, tea, thoron radiation, T'lokan schism, T'Pel, Vulcan, ''Wyoming'', USS, ''Yorktown'', USS Category:VOY episodes de:Tuvoks Flashback es:Flashback nl:Flashback